Game is macro oriented. This isn't to say that you don't micro or that you can max out and a-move and hope to win against good players, but games are won in similar fashion to Brood War. The maps are big (or the units aren't super fast), so positioning is key, since you can't instantly reinforce an area.

I feel like in a way this game plays like Brood War but without any issues with unit collision/pathing, and with all the hotkey amenities of Starcraft II. This is a game for people who want a real strategy game, instead of one where you win from ridiculous warp prism micro and a non-countered build order.

There are of course a plethora of technical differences between BW and Warparty. For instance, even if you send some units to an unarmed worker farm, they can attack/repair a tower and kill a lot of military units. This might ultimately change the way players maneuver their units and build their armies significantly. Also in Warparty, you begin with a hero unit, which makes the early game more like Warcraft 3 where you are sending it out to kill neutral creeps and collect power (a third resource which can only typically be obtained from controlling a few beacons around the map).

Overall it's well designed and I play a couple games whenever I don't feel like playing Brood War. When the full game comes out I'll play more, and maybe I'll end up playing this more often than Starcraft, since I'm 100% done with defilers and arbiters.

As a long time fan of the RTS genre, it's been a while since I've played an RTS game that truly felt fun to play and made me want to play it for more than a couple of hours. In the past couple of years there have been quite a few "RTS" games that have been released, but they were either too casual (and felt more like mobile games rather than a true RTS), had too many bugs/crashes/other problems, or were simply just not fun enough and only playable for a very limited amount of time. This is not the case with Warparty.

I have been following this game's development from its earliest days since it was announced, and I must say that it has come a LONG way since then, making incredible improvements on its already great gameplay that was there from the get-go. Graphics look really nice, the time setting in which the game takes place is one of the less explored in today's games, the game itself feels very smooth when playing and a personal bonus for me is that the game's music is also very nice to listen to and perfectly fits the game's theme.

As for the gameplay itself, the game has the classic resource management that we've seen in other great RTS games such as Age of Empires or Warcraft, with two quite distinct factions, each with its own leader and specializations (and a third one on the way!). Units are controlled individually like in all classic RTS games, no "squads" or anything like that, and the game has a really nice unit counter system where having the right army composition makes a big difference in the outcome of battles, alongside good micromanagement of units, of course. The UI of the game looks great and has surprising amounts of customization, and there will be multiplayer with dedicated servers so the game has potential for great competitive online gameplay as well.

For those more into casual gameplay, the game itself will feature a full single player campaign alongside the option to play against AI which has a lot of different difficulty levels, from "very easy" for the super casual guys to "very hard" who can quite satisfy even the most die-hard RTS players like myself.

Considering this is only the Early Access stage, I cannot wait to see the game at its full potential when it's fully released!

TLDR:

Do you like RTS games? Have you been waiting for a good RTS game for the longest time? Disappointed in the RTS games of the past few years? Do you like Dinosaurs?

If your answer to any of the questions above is "yes", then this game is for you.

Are you desperately waiting for Warcraft 3: Reforged or Age of Empires 4? Then this game is for you.It's a great RTS game with an interesting setting. The developers are very passionate and do everything to improve the game.

I'm always looking for new RTS games since they are a rare thing these days. However, Im often very dissapointed by what I find.

Well, that is NOT the case with war party !!!

This game is only on early access but it's impressive how good it is ! it's easy to understand as it possesses a lot of classical RTS mechanics but also some new stuff that make the game deep, fun and challenging.

The + :- cool and unusual universe (caveman x dinos x vaudou) : You can produce some T-rex ans some mounted velociraptor or go with some witch doctor and zombies- the pace : you always have something to do from start to finish : production, creeping, scouting, harrasing, big fights, it's very stimulating- you have both macro and micro stuff to do, rush can work, long macro games are there too- It's forgiving : You can have some lose and still comeback in the game- It's a bit soon to say that but this game seems to have a very high skill celling while also being fun played casually- There are very few bugs for an early access, it's very pleasant.- Big battles are quite epic !- The dev are listening very carefully to the community on their discord, it's nice to see that what you say is taken into account

The - :- Nothing major really, some small bugs and some stuff not compeltely polished (sound effects, minimap)

Honestly, as a BW, SC2, war3 and Age of Empire big fan, I can find some stuff of all these games into this one, this game has a gigantic potential and I really hope it will grow big !

Warparty: a game made by first time developers as their first push onto the market, within this review you’ll find out if it really is worth your money or if you should wait a little longer; however if you feel bored you can always skip to the end to find a quick summary.

Warparty is a new RTS game by a studio called Warcave, this is their first entry onto the gaming market and thus a lot rests on it for them. Warparty is set in a fictional incarnation of the prehistoric where multiple groups of people battle with each other for the resources found around the world. When I said fictional I wasn’t kidding at all, key components of the game revolve around using magical powers and recruiting dinosaurs and use them as mounts for your troops. This is quite unlikely as the last great dinosaur extinction was around 66 million years ago while the earliest humans only appeared 200.000 years ago so you mustn’t take any of the things within the game as very accurate to reality seeing as the fiction has just removed around 65.8 million years.

The game functions quite a lot like the aforementioned StarCraft as it has workers that collect depletable resources so after a while you will have to find new resources basically forcing you out of your own territory. You’d think that because it’s so far in the past you’d have so much less things to play with, no guns and no damn energy pylons however if you are to think that this makes the game boring you are gravely mistaken.

Like other RTS titles of a similar style you have to be fast to achieve anything as you can’t just sit back and relax, build up an army and annihilate any foe that crosses your path; in fact if you do that you will get absolutely destroyed by even the easiest AI. I really mustn’t elaborate on the concept on RTS as you are most likely well aware about how RTS games function and how this type of game will function so I won’t explain it here because having to repeat that you have to build up resources as quickly as possible to build up a sizable army to destroy the enemy base and win is just so incredibly tiring. Like a proper game would have it already has a wide variety of units, upgrades and other magical powers you can use once in a while.

Multiplayer and bonusses

And on top of all these great features you also get a proper working multiplayer with a ranking system going up from the most utter noobs to the people that sit on their room all day reliving the prehistoric. Even if you think well this kind of RTS is not really my type of thing don’t worry because there is also a survival mode where you really are “stuck” in one place defending against an infinite horde of enemies and dinosaurs, which for someone like me who likes to build up an army and do nothing for a while, is also a fun way to play the game to breathe some variation into the game.

What do you get for your money?

Currently Warparty is priced at 18 USD$ personally speaking you only see about 75% of this price reflected in the current game content, however if you invest now you will certainly get that extra 25% back if not more as the developers are quite active and rapidly developing new things for you to enjoy making this a worthwhile investment.

Technicalities

GraphicsThe graphics are decent looking, while it’s definitely not something appearing on any top 10 lists it does the job and all the units are very easily recognizable so you know what you’re dealing with. This also ensures that most of the current computers will not have any problems with running it.AudioWhile the sound effects are done fine the background soundtrack is the same 2 minute loop of stereotypical stone age music which after the first 20 minutes starts to really get on your nerves, after a while just turning off the music and playing my own music in the background was much better because the background music is not acceptable as of now. Performance/StabilityWith the game not having too fancy of graphics it ran fine on my machine (GTX 1050TI, I-5 7600K, 8GB RAM, 1920x1080 Native resolution)AI intelligenceThe AI that you play against in skirmishes is quite good at its job and can really offer a real challenge however, the unit AI which has to move all the units and place them and make sure none of them get in the way is on the lower side as often units are stuck because they are trapped behind others or they run around in circle; because they cannot stand on the exact location you have targeted so they start running around which is quite annoying.

Conclusion and summary

Warparty, while not a perfect game by any means and definitely not complete is now already quite a lot of fun to play and rapidly developing. Even with its steeper price point it’s a worthwhile investment

Pros

+ Wide unit variety, all unique in their own way + Deep gameplay offering lots of options for different gameplay styles + Good Graphics, everything is easy to see + Interesting time setting, allows for a lot of unit diversity + Good map design, allow for a lot of different ways a game can go

Cons

- Incredibly stagnant soundtrack - Limited units at the moment - No Campaign or story (yet)

Final Score

Score: 78/100This is based on the already good gameplay however the still lacking components. Keep in mind that this is only early access so things are subject to change.

“Warparty” is an RTS that honors the golden age of RTS games. The resources are simple, but collecting them can be difficult and complex. Every race has extremely similar units, but this is meant to promote balance between the races. There are also plenty of counters for each unit. The player isn’t stuck with simply units, as heroes, neutral dinosaurs, and powers can turn the tide of a battle. The sound in this game is surprisingly high quality. Unit voices are well recorded and they have enough amusing lines to keep them interesting. The graphics are cartoony, but this only accentuates the silly tone that the game is attempting to create. I can’t wait for the campaign to be added to the game so that there is more story. The current story is a short bit found in the tutorial.

Game Breakdown

🎮 Gameplay: 🎮

ResourcesThis game keeps it simple. There are only two types of resources for unit and building creation. They are crystals and meat. Meat can be pretty easily collected. Berry bushes can be found around the maps and they are the most efficient way to collect food. Berries are gathered quite quickly, while their infinite counterparts, farms, are slower. The final way to gather meat is to slaughter the neutral dinosaurs found throughout the map. Once killed, the dinosaurs will drops meat packs that can be moved over to collect. These often provide a quick boost of meat and can lead to a safer resource collection area, but dinosaurs don’t respawn, so the player can’t count on them as a reliable food source. The second resource is crystals. Crystals are also found in deposits, and huge deposits are located in dangerous areas guarded by the most dangerous neutral dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Crystals also have an infinite source, but similar to farms, they also get collected quite slowly. The way to get crystals infinitely is to build a mine. Pack animals will then deliver crystals from the mine to a settlement that the player owns. The difficult part about this way to generate resources is that the pack animals collect more crystals if the settlement they are dropping the crystals off at is far away. This A long route means that enemies can often attack and disrupt the supply chain by killing the pack animals. These resources are really important to create the units for the player’s army.

Units & ResearchUnits make up the core of every single army. It is no different in “Warparty.” Units get built in their respective home buildings. Home buildings for powerful units aren’t unlocked until the player researches the settlement upgrade on one of their settlements. There are three tiers for settlements, and the first settlement the player receives is a tier 1. Tier 1 often has few unit choices and mainly boils down to a tank and a ranged unit great at killing tanks. The ranged units have low health which means they must be protected. Higher tier units may have special abilities. For example, the anklyosaurus who is a tier 2 tank for the Visthara has an ability that allows him to reflect damage back at this attackers. As settlement upgrades occur, every unit in the game has one upgrade which makes them more powerful and changes their graphics. Tier 2 also allows a player to upgrade the damage and armor of each unit type multiple times. I do wish that there was a bit more variety in the unit choices. Every race has pretty similar units. This does make the game more balanced, but it unfortunately makes every race play relatively similarly.

Races & PowersThere are three races in the games and they all play rather similarly. The Wildlanders have strong units throughout the game and specialize in being able to collect lots of meat in the early game by killing dinosaurs. The Visthara make friends with the neutral dinosaurs and can befriend them by using power points. Neutral dinosaurs are also not hostile towards the Visthara which means that shrine can be capture by them quite early. Shrines are the best way to generate power points. Power points allow the player to cast one of the races’ six completely unique powers. These powers can change the tide of a game. The Necromas, who raise a zombie around their hero every time they kill a unit, have a power called Dark Claws. This ability does a large amount of damage in a large area of effect. Cast at the right time, this can decimate an enemy’s entire tank line.

TalentsEvery settlement level, with the exception of the first level where the player must choose two, the player is able to choose one of two talents. Every time there is a choice of talents, the player must pick from two different talents. Some talents help get an advantage in the early game, but they aren’t especially useful in the late game. Talents are static and do not change. Talents allow players to counter their opponents even more, and I thought that it was a nice way to allow players to specialize their race.

MultiplayerMultiplayer works quite well. I tested it out and there were no issues with the netcode and the game ran quite smoothly. Due to the extreme amount of balance, the game feels quite competitive. I do wish that the races were a bit more different as all of their units play the same way.

⚙ Overall:⚙This is fun RTS with a silly premise. I would say that the game replicates the golden age of RTS games quite well, and fans of the era should definitely keep a watchful eye on this title.

📚 Story: 📚This game has a planned campaign, but at the time of writing it is not implemented. The tutorial has some interesting story that I enjoyed, but it is quite short.

🎧 Sound:🎧The sound effects are excellent. Every unit has their own sound and the sound effects sound clear. The voices often try to be amusing and I think that they succeed. Some units also have accents that make them sound a bit more like an ancient person. Attack sounds are also pleasant and don’t overlap. The entire soundscape is good for an indie game. The music is pretty standard and I often forgot it was there since the game is so fast-paced.

📺 Graphics: 📺 The graphics are a cartoonish, and exaggerated realistic art style. Every single graphic is different between the three races include in the game. Something that I really enjoyed about the graphics is that the unit upgrades change the graphics of the units themselves. It is also quite nice that every single unit is quite distinct. This is important to the developer as they are still making changes to make sure everything is instantly recognizable. The UI also looks quite nice. It is designed to look like cave art but it is still functional.

This product was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free.